An amusing diversion for the mid-morning: saw this for the first time last night, and a Facebook friend shared it today to remind me of it. As an added Oregon-specific bonus, the clip was produced by hotshot ad agency Weiden + Kennedy. Working stiffs--human and otherwise--should be able to relate...
Are you one to keep track of sustainability news in your local paper, maybe The O and perhaps online? Do you faithfully follow LUBA appeals and UGB hearings? Are you looking for the next green tax credit, or want to keep tabs on how your elected reps are working to protect the planet?
There are a bunch of you out there like that here in the great PNW, but as with any proactive search for news and information, it's a hell of a chore to keep up, even if you know just where to look. Wouldn't it be great if someone was doing the watching out FOR you, and simply dropped the best of what they've found to your email inbox every day? And threw in a little economic and cultural news for good measure?
Sightline Daily is a free news service and blog featuring sustainability, economic, and social news from around the Northwest. Sightline Daily emails give you a snapshot of the day's news. Our editors get up at 5AM every weekday, check more than 40 papers, and handpick the top 10 stories affecting life in our region.
Weekly Score emails give you the best of our blog every Friday. From walkability and transit to climate policy and human health, Sightline's researchers provide commentary and connect the dots across issues.
When you sign up, you’ll join a group of journalists, policy makers, and engaged citizens who use Sightline Daily to stay on top of their game. Readers call it “a great way to get the most important and interesting headlines of the day in one quick location."
Granola in vanilla Silk for breakfast, with a side of NW enviro news--how can you top that?
Ah, but you can: if you sign up for the Sightline Daily before October 29, you'll be entered to win more than just the sense of well being that comes with being properly informed. How's an all-expenses, two-night trip to the Emerald City sound?Two Amtrak tickets, two nights at the snazzy new Hyatt Olive 8 with breakfast included, vouchers for dinner at the equally hip Lark and Sutra, plus other goodies for activities during the day. Does. Not. Suck!
Even if you don't get the chance to sign up by the 28th, or don't win the trip, you'll still come out a winner if you sign up. A well-informed electorate is a powerful electorate!
Briefly, I wanted to follow up on yesterday's story about the new policy drafted to handle media requests for attendance at local government Executive Sessions, by linking up to The O's story on the matter published this morning. I'm quoted a couple of times, and while the quotes are generally accurate, the tone seems a touch petulant, like I'm sour-grapesing my way through the issue because I had been refused. I think under a reasonable definition of "media" Loaded Orygun should qualify, but that's not really the point, and if a system was proposed that ended up excluding me for some justifiable reason, I don't think I'd have an objection.
But the problem is that not only would this policy tend to shut someone like me out, it would also restrict bloggers far more professional, regular and talented than myself. What if David Niewert, aka Orcinus, had only his webpage (and Crooks and Liars, where he is managing editor but I'm not aware of any original journalism they do there) and his books as his credential? Does Orcinus have a letterhead, or editors for that matter? Before TalkingPointsMemo became a full-fledged journo outfit, it was simply Josh Marshall, freelance journalist. Big no for him if he wanted to attend an Exec? Or how about Marcy Wheeler, who when known in her writings simply as "emptywheel," was the prime journalistic mover on L'affair du Plame? As someone without a real-name byline on her posts, she'd be viewed with skepticism as well.
And as I noted yesterday, the entire principle of a preemptively restrictive eligibility for attending sessions is both upside down relative to the point of the law and the need for it (ie, that ALL public meetings should be open, and if there are exceptions they should be tightly regulated and as open as possible), and to the known problem the lack of a detailed policy has caused in Oregon (which to my knowledge is none). It's a solution in search of a problem.
Here's what I had to say, as quoted by Zheng in the piece. I may add more commentary below the fold to discuss more specific objections to the way the policy was crafted, later on. And I know I want to say something about the quote attributed to the only pro-transparency advocate on the panel:
The policy stems from a Lake Oswego incident in July 2008 when Mark Bunster, author of political blog Loaded Orygun, unsuccessfully insisted he was a member of the media who could attend a closed session about the city's $110 million sewer interceptor project. Oregon law allows media representatives to attend but not report directly from executive sessions.
"It's not fair to independent purveyors of journalism, because in many ways, it does not recognize how they operate," Bunster said after reviewing the policy. "The policy asks people like myself to conform or produce evidence of eligibility in ways that are reflective of the established forms of media."
The new policy also creates definitions that go beyond the spirit of the original 1970s statute, Bunster said, and potentially leaves public bodies vulnerable to legal action.
Judson Randall, president of Open Oregon, a nonprofit freedom-of-information coalition, was the only member of Lake Oswego's task force not currently affiliated with government or media. He said the policy serves the public interest by guaranteeing access for legitimate reporters.
"The only person who will be excluded is some fly-by-night blogger who nobody knows who she or he is," he said. "To me, that's OK, because if they don't have some sort of cachet, then maybe they shouldn't be in a meeting."
I just looked at the date of this link, which leads to a piece about the piece done by Yuxing Zheng of The O about me getting kicked out of a Lake Oswego Executive Session, on the grounds that I wasn't legitmately verifiable "media." I'll get into that in a second, but I looked at the date, and it's Monday October 6, 2008. Exactly a year ago, and now the story pops up again.
As I said, I was refused entry to an Executive Session meeting because none of them were sufficently aware of or trusting of the name Loaded Orygun to throw me in there with representatives of Willy Week and The O (Zheng). Before I left, the City Attorney did admit out loud that there really should be a policy, "by the next Executive Session," as I recall him saying. Ha. Ha ha.
Yeah. As I said, a year ago today--that's when the original O piece came out on the whole Exec Sess angle of the Poop Project story--the LO City Attorney came up with a draft policy that was largely drawn from that of Columbia County. In the article there was a lot of skepticism from transparency and good-government types. including Judson Randall, the president of Open Oregon:
"Who defines news?" he asked. "If somebody writes a column, is that news? Is there information in there that is newsworthy you wouldn't consider news? There's all kinds of shades in there. If I were a city council, I wouldn't want to be in a position to decide that."
"The government shouldn't be controlling the media," he said. "What it gives, it can take away."
Randall was part of an eight-member committee that took those drafts and attempted to come up with a statewide framework that all public bodies could use for their own meetings laws. The others were all members of the various broadcasting and print guilds, editor honcho Bob Caldwell of The O, and the City Attorney and past Mayor of Lake O. They wrote this letter, to explain the conclusions and analysis reached in this form to be used by local governments to define their Executive Session policy--which is to say their defintion of media.
In what very well may be the first time Greg Walden has appeared in video on Loaded Orygun--as well as the first time for a Greta van Sustern clip--we bring you an issue which really should transcend partisan boundaries: adequate time to read pending bills before voting.
I have a bit of a different take than where I think most of the heat for this is coming, however; at the disrupted town halls this summer the chant of "Read the Bill!" was designed to intimidate Congresspeople and shame them into admitting they hadn't, in fact, gone through the whole text. It would be nice if the Members read them beforehand, sure--but the reality is that staffers and advisors exist to assist with helping their bosses understand legislation, and frankly most Members (like the rest of us) aren't necessarily adept at reading legislative language, which is crafted in boilerplate legal-ish language that often reads like an Old English schoolbook.
I'm never going to be optimistic that giving more lead time will actually force more Members to read the bills. What it WILL do, however, is give the rest of US time to read them--and in the age of the internet, that can be a valuable tool. Ordinary citizens and subject experts on the topic in the bill have already proven highly useful in this regard, pointing out odd snippets and codiciles and getting them into the public discussion.
So despite the fact that I don't necessarily find Walden's motives pure, I can't much argue with the concept. Here's what he had to say last night:
The rubber is beginning to really hit the road when it comes to health care in Congress; recess is over and the Baucus Caucus finally came out with a bill to mark up. It appears the rest of the Finance Committee--including our own Senator Wyden--either want to mark it with a bunch of changes (Democrats) or with a big red F (Republicans, even Olympia Snowe).
Both of our Senators have elucidated serious issues with the Finance bill, not quite as directly as Senator Rockefeller from West Virginia--who essentially declared it a dead letter and ripped the "co-op" compromise to shreds in a letter to the Gang of Six--but by attacking what the Baucus Suckus plan lacks. And for each Senator the complaint is different.
Jeff Merkley, for his part, continues to be one of the more repetitively vocal members of the chamber when it comes to support for a robust public option. His insistence has not wavered throughout a long summer of angst-ridden tea-leaf reading over whether the PO would survive the deliberative process. His refusal to sit quietly on the back bench and let the seasoned pros handle things is enormously welcome, and a big poke in the ribs to doubters (like me) who thought the key word for Merkley's first term would be "languid" rather than "loud and liberal."
Yesterday he took his advocacy to the airwaves, hitting not only The Ed Show, but also CNBC. Here's the latter clip, first:
And now, chatting with Ed Schulz:
If you like, you may consider my relegation of Senator Wyden's media efforts below the fold as some kind of "punishment" or commentary on his behavior on the health care issue. That doesn't mean it would be true (but it doesn't mean it would be false, either). What it definitely means in part, at least, is that with two vid clips, the top of the fold is already pretty big....
It's tough to maintain the proper amount of mojo in order to keep up a political blog like this one--at least, it has been for me since at least the November elections. I got heavily involved in politics when Bush was "elected" in 2000, and got particularly engrossed in 2004 when Chimpy was again put into the Oval Office. I felt like I had to do something, to try and effect change and get better representation at the federal level. Well, that's happened for the most part, and sadly many of us have discovered that's not enough (or at least not for the current crowd of pathetic sheep and cowards we've elected on the Democratic side for the most part).
That post-elation disappointment and ennui persists with me today, but sometimes you get a little boost from unexpected quarters--like the Washington Spectator, an indy-insider rag in the capital which I have actually not perused before, despite being around for the last 35 years. My initial impression of them is wildly favorable, given this as my introduction (via a reprint at Senator Jeff Merkley's home page):
The Huffington Post got it right. Sort of. “Senator Calls Out Frank Luntz from the SenateFloor” read a June 10 headline on the national Internet news site. Huffington Post’s political reporter Sam Stein had seized on a short speech that Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley made on the Senate floor, attacking veteran Republican consultant Frank Luntz for circulating twenty-five pages of talking points to be used against any health care legislation the Democrats might offer up.
If the Huffington Post was close, the more obscure Loaded Orygun was spot on. The regional Internet site that “delivers the straight scoop on news, politics and other cool happenings around the state of Oregon” focused on what editors call the “so what” of a story: a senator with four months of seniority had stepped up to the lectern in the Senate chamber and attacked the minority leader who had been a member of the club for twenty-five years. And pulled no punches.
Loaded Orygun blogger “Torridjoe” was so taken with Merkley’s three-minute speech that he apologized for his earlier lack of enthusiasm. “The word ‘milquetoast’ got a lot of use on Merkley, by me as much as anyone,” Torridjoe wrote.
“So, so wrong.”
He went on to praise Merkley for “a devastating critique of both Frank Luntz for offering health reform-killing talking points designed to scare … and the Minority Leader of the Senate Mitch McConnell, for taking the points and running with them.” [emph mine]
As I type this piece, I realize there may be a certain stench of self-congratulation at work, but there are a couple of reasons I'm bringing it up besides shameless aggrandizement. First of all, to have any established media source not only reference, but cite and quote "an obscure regional blog" like LO is rare indeed. Shoot, half the time when a blog as influential as DailyKos or FireDogLake comes up with original material, they don't get proper mention. So at the top of my talking points is a big thumbs up to the Spectator for a) researching their subject, b) utilizing nontraditional, local sources, and c) actually crediting those sources for their efforts.
The other main reason I bring it up is the amusing irony of WHICH LO post about Merkley ended up getting cited--the one where I most emphatically admit my error in thinking Merkley would be a silent, soft pillow on the backbench of the Senate. It's not clear whether the author is aware of my strong advocacy for Steve Novick (although he does reference and IMO accurately characterize the primary in the article), or whether it simply struck him that a homestate observer who had previously thought Merkley was a milquetoast, had changed his tune after this. Regardless, after all of the negative ink I've spilled on Merkley in the past--much of which I still stand by as a proper reflection of the time--it's funny to me that the one time my writing about Merkley gets noticed, it's for my mea culpa.
And--yeah, OK--the whole piece is a pretty good feature on Merkley, noting approvingly the Senator's push for a strong public option. So you have my permission to read the whole thing, not just the parts that mention me. It's nice to be noticed, nicer still to be noticed for being right. Maybe this will stanch the ennui for a couple of weeks...
A bit delayed, given that the rally was Friday, but I did go down and cover the event in front of Senator Wyden's Portland office, snapped a couple of photos, and talked with Lisa Caballero, the volunteer organizer while getting a copy of her statement and testimonials from ordinary Oregonians about their strong desire for a public option.
See, that was the reason for the rally, to try and push Wyden towards a full and robust public option (FRPO). Here's a picture of them doing that!
The shot I have here is cropped a bit; the strength of the rally was a definite 50+ and closer to 75 by my headcount. (That's easily double or triple the group who came out for single payer, although I did recognize some overlap). They spoke, chanted and got honks for about 20 minutes before dispersing, but they did deliver their petition (more on that below), raise some awareness and earn media attention (WWeek and the Merc).
Here's the transcription of the audio I got talking to Caballero after the rally, which wasn't really conducted as a formal interview--but she does make some good points which echoed her speech:
People don't quite understand the politics of what's happening. Wyden keeps making these statements that are quite confusing to someone that's not bothering to dig and be informed. I have had people just from this event say, "why are you out here? Wyden is supporting a public option." Well actually he's not; if you listen to what he's saying, he's saying he supports a public option if it's "sustainably financed." And then he doesn't describe what that is.
I would be happier if he just said, "I disagree with you; we don't see eye to eye on this and this is what I'm supporting, can I convince you?" But instead, he's deliberately not being straightforward to people that aren't up to their neck in this issue It's confusing to people. So I think we're really getting down to the point where he needs to come out and make a statement. This week Sen. Kennedy's committee has come out with a bill. There's something on the table. It's been vetted by the Congressional Budget Office, and so they've got a number on it. My question to Sen. Wyden is, does he consider the finances of that bill to be sustainably financed?
The problem that starts happening with someone like me is I'm not a professional. I'm not an economist, I'm not a policy wonk, I just read the newspaper. So I can't argue policy with complicated answers like that about Senate procedures. But I just get the feeling that I'm not being dealt with straightforwardly.
Oregon does have one Senator who's willing to come out and stake his claim for a full and robust public option (FRPO)--junior Senator Jeff Merkley. In this video recorded today at Pioneer Square outside KGW's new studios there, Merkley affirms his support for a public option, one that competes directly with private insurance and cuts costs using Medicare-style bargaining rules with providers. He also takes time to parry some of the built-in skepticism of his interviewer, who seems awfully concerned for the health of private insurers (as opposed to say, the insured or those who would like to be). Watch the video, below:
Saw this on the way back from my interview with Jeremy Wright of the MLS-to-PDX effort; in the wake of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer failure and deep cuts at all of the major Portland papers, it may offer a clue as to why the traditional dead-tree media are having trouble--and it isn't falling ad revenue. I snapped it at First and Yamhill in downtown Portland:
Intentionally or not, Goobernor Kulongoski has reignited Oregon's reputational flame as a legislatively innovative bellwether state, especially on environmental issues, by supporting an initiative to consider converting the current per-gallon gasoline tax into a mileage-based, GPS-read revenue system. It's not a new idea and it's not an idea without inconsistencies and issues, particularly in the short term--but it addresses a reality that many governments are recognizing: the greener our vehicles will thankfully get, the faster an infrastructure budget based on per-gallon tax revenue will continue to plummet. The AP started the ball rolling over the New Year:
Oregon is among a growing number of states exploring ways to tax drivers based on the number of miles they drive instead of how much gas they use, even going so far as to install GPS monitoring devices in 300 vehicles. The idea first emerged nearly 10 years ago as Oregon lawmakers worried that fuel-efficient cars such as gas-electric hybrids could pose a threat to road upkeep, which is paid for largely with gasoline taxes.
The proposal is not without critics, including drivers who are concerned about privacy and others who fear the tax could eliminate the financial incentive for buying efficient vehicles.
But Oregon is ahead of the nation in exploring the concept, even though it will probably be years before any mileage tax is adopted.
As cars burn less fuel, "the gas tax isn't going to fill the bill," said Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
The next Congress "could begin to set the stage, perhaps looking at some much more robust pilot programs, to begin the research, to work with manufacturers."
Gov. Ted Kulongoski has included development money for the tax in his budget proposal, and interest is growing in a number of other states.
Wanted to speak up and tell why you think Bill Sizemore is a scandalous liar and criminal? Have you been itching to call Loren Parks a dirty old pervert? Or maybe you're coming from another perspective, and you'd like to flay Sam Adams for being a sodomite communist? (Why should Ben Cannon get all the love? There's got to be a contest somewhere for Hottest Sodomite Communist, right?)
But maybe you were afraid to find your voice and call em like you see's em. "What if I'm hunted down like a dog by Friends of Sam?" you might be thinking. Well, can't help you there; perhaps it's wise not to fuck with the President of Pride Week after all. If you're thinking you might get caught up in a legal tangle for calling someone out on LO (or any blog in Oregon, it appears), you can rest easy:
A judge in Clackamas County ruled that an Oregon law that allows newspapers to shield the identity of news sources also protects anonymous writers who post comments to media Web sites. The Web sites could not be compelled to identify the writers, Circuit Judge pro tem James Redman ruled and, under federal law, were not responsible for the comments.
In other words, Beard found out, you can say almost anything about anybody on an Oregon media Web site without fear of being unmasked by a lawsuit or prosecuted for libel, defamation or invasion of privacy.
The Oregon decision, regarding comments posted on Web sites operated by the Portland Mercury, Willamette Week and Bikeportland, was one of the first in the nation to expand news media protections to people who post anonymous comments on the Internet.
A Montana judge issued a similar ruling in September, saying that people who post anonymous comments to newspaper Web sites are akin to confidential sources. An Illinois newspaper is using the state shield law to fight a subpoena from the state attorney general, who wants the identities of some readers who commented anonymously about a murder investigation.
At LoadedO your comments aren't strictly speaking anonymous; they're pseudonymous and confidential. One of the ethics I bind LO to is that we will never reveal personal information about the commenter unless a reasonable allegation of a crime has been made by authorities. Even then, I'd probably be pissy about it.
So go ahead! Call Kulongoski a cheese-dick! Tell us that Vance Day has already been arrested for indecent activity in Portland's new Loo! Or here's an idea: libel ME! (Not here though; you're not anonymous to me, remember?) I won't like it, but what the hell can I do? It's legal!
Sean Meagher over at Blazers Blog on The O site did exactly what I wanted to do, which was wrap up some of the best commentary from the highly expectant group of Portland (as well as some national) NBA watchers. Blazer's Edge as usual gives you the best meat and gravy on the game itself, and Mike Barrett may be wasted on radio, because even at 2AM his blogwriting is top notch. Casey Holdahl tips us on what Greg Oden's writing about the road trip. Be sure to check out what they're saying in Boston, too.
Most of the commentariat (humbly now including myself) tended to express this game as a test of whether the Blazers can operate on the next level. I'm rather more optimstic; it's clear to me that they have the raw ability and chemistry to beat any team in the league. The issues are execution and strength of character. The team, at least, should be seeking to remind themselves that they ARE on that next level, if they want to be.
I love what Brandon said about it in an interview a couple days ago--not that they're interested in seeing if they're ready to measure up, but that everyone from last year remembers the way they were handled by Boston, and they've been LOOKING FORWARD to getting another chance and showing them that Portland version 2008. Respect, but no fear. His quiet, one-on-one leadership should spread the demystification of Kevin Garnett and his yap throughout the roster.
We don't know what they're capable of because they've not had a chance to display it yet--the biggest question ultimately being how they would perform in a short series against a top team playing at its best. And there's no doubt that's a big advantage for teams that have succeeded at high levels before. The Blazers are precocious to be sure, and experience counts for a lot.
But precocity sometimes wins out over inexperience, and I hope they are approaching the game as a challenge instead of a test. Win or lose, I think the intimidation and the domination may be over, and that's a big step forward if it's true. Enjoy the game!
This morning (early this morning!) I pretaped some comments about the Executive Session story for OPB's Think Out Loud program. Starting at 9AM on your OPB station, they'll be discussing "Who is a Journalist?" Appearing in studio will be the mayor of Lake Oswego, the head of the Media Bloggers Assocaition, and the Dean of the Journalism School at U of O.
If you haven't been keeping up as this discussion has built interest in the professional media, the most recent piece at LO on the subject covers the Lake Oswego Review story done last Thursday.
Tune in (here's the online streaming link), leave a comment at the accompanying blog at OPB (linked above), and come back here to give your thoughts...
Today's Lake Oswego Review takes another look at the "bloggers as media" question that arose when I was excluded from an LO Council Executive Session meeting, essentially for being insufficiently credentialled. Reporter Lee van der Voo--who is a board member of the state chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and has recused herself from discussions and negotiations with government on this topic--explains the recent events, and then discusses how the proposal put forth by City Attorney David Powell has many in the state media worried:
Lake Oswego Mayor Judie Hammerstad said she wants to create a responsible atmosphere for executive sessions in an age where technology has outstripped the fine points of Oregon’s open meetings law.
But the city’s efforts to define the media have met with concern from trade organizations, open government advocates and media outlets.
Those groups say government should not be allowed to define who is a journalist and what constitutes news.
“If government is allowed to certify media representatives, then government therefore is allowed to decertify,” said Judson Randall, president of Open Oregon, an advocacy group promoting open government.
Once the authority is aquired, Randall said government can change criteria to make rules increasingly burdensome.
Duane Bosworth, a media attorney also on the board of Open Oregon, said any approach to clarify the state law should focus on refining what the Legislature intended when lawmakers approved it.
That effort should not overlook the Legislature’s primary goals when it wrote the law, Bosworth said. Those goals were to acknowledge the media as a watchdog and allow journalists to stay current on civic happenings.
“Lake Oswego has to value those things,” said Bosworth.
He is concerned the resulting local policy instead has a punitive tone and is based on worst-case scenarios that have never played out. He said Lake Oswego has been slow to prove the policy has real benefits and is even necessary at all.
“It’s as if they are dictating to the world what a news media must look like and that’s not proper,” said Bosworth.
Citing a need for more feedback, the Lake Oswego City Council delayed plans to approve the policy Oct. 7. Instead, officials plan meetings with press advocates and will continue talks.
Van der Voo goes on to quote me a little bit, wherein I immodestly repeat that by any reasonable standard I should be considered a member of the local media. Of course, the issue to the City is not whether I qualify on a productivity basis, but rather on an institutional basis--one that they presume will determine whether their (the Council's) interests are safely protected or not. Accountability is a different issue than establishing who qualifies as media, and to shoehorn them together is in my view a central reason why their initial proposal was flawed.
Here's an idea: how about a $500 civil penalty, to be assessed EITHER institutionally or individually against anyone violating the terms of the Exec Session law? If the problem is that bloggers lack an institution behind them that offers a disincentive to violating the terms, why not then apply a similar disincentive to individuals acting independently? I don't think LO has a categorical fear of bloggers per se; to quote Marge Simpson, they simply fear the unknown. A path to accountabilty for anyone appearing at an Exec Session, would seem to solve this problem, no?
As van der Voo notes and as we expected, Tuesday's hearing has been postponed in order for LO to confer with the various constituencies and try to come up with something better. We'll keep following the story...
Update, 1pm--I just got my hands on the short KEX report that aired yesterday, featuring a couple of quick snippets from our interview. Listen to it here {mp3, about 1 min worth)
The O now has a more comprehensive "reader forum/feedback" setup, with something called "The Stump" that also pulls in editorial commentary from the staff at the paper. Following up on the story in Sunday's print edition, they ran a somewhat more in-depth version online Sunday night, written by a different reporter. (Ironically, the print edition has nearly a dozen comments; the online version just one).
As I said, the story obviously covers much of the same ground as the print edition, but offers more analysis and less quoting of subject experts, and gives some ink to David Powell's characterization of the situation:
David Powell, the Lake Oswego city attorney, is right when he suggests that the problem from the city's perspective is finding a responsible party who will be accountable for the actions of the reporter. If the reporter breaks a promise not to publish an account of a properly conducted executive session, to whom does the city complain? And complain is about all it can do because there is no legal sanction for breaking the pledge. It is, as Powell said to The Oregonian's Yuxing Zheng in August, a transaction "based largely on good faith and almost an honor system." In other words, one that works until it doesn't.
And of course, there are plenty of questions from the press perspective, the chief one being what's up with a pre-meeting promise not to publish something? But none of the alternatives to the present law is especially appealing, either.
Issuing press credentials might solve the matter at a practical level even if it leaves most of the theoretical problems unresolved. Changing the law to keep everyone out of closed meetings meets a theoretical standard but serves up immense practical problems. and I don't mean just for the news media. Ask anyone who has ended up on the receiving end of coverage jihad about secret meetings. And, in any case, the public does have the right generally to know what its local governments are up to.
Powell, who plans to report back to his city council meeting this week about how to proceed, thinks that the city (and other governments, for that matter) and other interested parties - a number of press organizations and freedom-of-information groups - should sit down and talk some more. Then, maybe, the legislature ought to reexamine the law.
I think the Council's worries revolve around trust issues, and it's very true that the Exec Session laws in Oregon lack teeth in terms of enforceability. However, what LO is doing is giving faith to organizations they know well--Powell's original proposal actually pre-cleared anyone from The O and the Lake Oswego Review--with no more enforcement or verification of trustworthiness than we have now. Jayson Blair, anyone? The key problem with their concept is that it favors corporate, institutionalized media essentially on faith, and by comparison views independent sources skeptically.
More on this as we go forward, of course...but even if you already read the print version on this story, this one is worth a read for delving a little bit more into the theoretical issues, which is IMO where we need to be right now as interested parties work on a viable solution.
Once again I'm heartened to see the traditional media respond to a question in their own industry that they could easily ignore, but have publicized and agreed that the question should be asked: when it comes to a workable definition for Oregon's business of government, who are "the media?" Oregonian reporter Yuxing Zheng has followed up on her original article about me getting thrown out of Lake Oswego Council's Executive Session, with a new piece on the Council's proposed response to the problem of defining media.
In Sunday's Metro section, Zheng takes City Attorney David Powell's proposed definition scheme to a number of subject experts, all of whom seem to find it...wanting:
Lake Oswego is considering defining media organizations as "institutionalized," "well-established" and producing at least 25 percent news content. That has stirred a firestorm of protest from media organizations and media law experts who say the proposed policy is overly restrictive or simply unnecessary. Others contend that a government should not try to arbitrarily define media, especially in a fluid, Internet-fueled landscape where legions of bloggers, including Bunster, insist they are journalists.
"It's a pretty draconian policy," said Wendy Culverwell, president of the state chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. "It just went to fairly long extremes to define media, to require people to provide fairly lengthy documentation. That's just not appropriate for a city government to be doing."
The headline says it all--in the middle of Rachael Maddow telling Pat Buchanan on MSNBC that GOP belittling of the finale at Invesco Field is going to look stupid afterwards, the camera pans across the crowd on the floor. Oregon actually is ON the floor at the stadium, with a decentish view a little back and to the left of the stage.
If you have a DVR and can back it up, go to about 6:46 PM, MSNBC. Halfway through the pan, Bus Project founder and new House member Jefferson Smith stands up and looks back across the crowd, an awed and blissful look on his face: "Wow, this is so COOL!" he seems to be saying.
Candiate bio videos are always so interesting to me, on one level for the media production, but also because almost every presidential candidate has a great life story. The wild thing about Clinton's, I remember, was that photo of him at Boy's Nation meeting JFK. It was like being preternaturally touched by political magic. I don't mean to pressure my good friend Jefferson, but would anyone who knows him doubt he could end up giving his own acceptance speech someday? If that should ever happen, I'll be saving the video of Jeff having his "touched by magic" moment....!
It would be rudely hypocritical of me to propound the democratic glories of citizen activism--and then turn on someone just because the mainsteam media label him a gadfly. Heaven knows I sympathize with a lot of gadflys, who are really smart people trying to keep a government on their toes. Heck, I may even qualify myself now that I've been tossed out on my ear by the Lake Oswego Council.
There's usually a reason you get the gadfly tag, which implies either a core frivolousness or tediousness, or both. Amanda Fritz is a good example of a citizen activist who often was a thorn in the side of City Council and the planning boards she's sat on--but she had always done her homework and did not try to bully anyone or lie about her opponents to gain the upper hand.
Art Bullock, who refuses to comment to the local media and allegedly goes by this alias, has a bevy of lawsuits pending against the city of Ashland, a tourist destination, which rests in the foothills of the Siskiyou Mountains, and is home to the renowned Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Bullock, who county officials said registered to vote the same day he filed his campaign papers Wednesday, says he is running for mayor because the city government here is "run by insiders aggressively pursuing their personal agendas and money interests."
Ashland is where "insiders get the power (and) taxpayers get the bill," Bullock said in a statement announcing his candidacy.
While supporters say Bullock is an astute City Hall watchdog, his many critics say Bullock is a gadfly whose aim is to stymie economic development in the idyllic town of about 20,000 people by filing frivolous complaints.
Rizo, who covers a number of states' legal beats for LNL, should be no stranger to Bullock and his history with the city of Ashland. Before this gig he was a reporter for the Daily Tidings in town, which seems to have its own history with Bullock, which we'll get into some below.
{plus a kind of funny "vampire"-like video moment between Bullock and the paper, below!}
This interview and article in the Oregonian about Loaded Orygun happened entirely while I was gone, except for the event that precipiated it. I discussed at some length what happened when I tried to sit in on a Lake Oswego Council executive (ie, closed) session, as a member of the media. (Short answer: they said no.) It was a sidebar to the much bigger story that the same Council delayed their implementation of the sewer replacement project, but I thought it was interesting in its own right.
So did The O's Yuxing Zheng, someone who clearly has not been infected by the paper's malaise--she was in the audience while I pled my case before Council (and subsequently admitted into the Exec that followed), but noted that they seemed totally caught unawares--thus the headline "Blogger befuddles city by seeking media role." I think she deserves credit for actually using her nose and getting the story past an editor, making her own assignments and getting them published. That's all too rare in a world where Murdoch runs the Journal, so kudos there. (She must be new.)
Considering that she talked to me over a ratty AT&T cell line while I was somewhere in southern Idaho between Twin Falls and the border, she did a pretty good job of reporting what I actually said--which is now kind of a problem, because something I suggested to "resolve" the issue really isn't the way to go about it at all, and yet for once I may be taken seriously and inadvertantly spur its occurrence. The irony would hurt too bad, so let's not have that.
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